For His Captain
by ZoLuOtaku
Summary: Luffy has saved the life of every member of the Straw Hat Pirates. But, what will happen when it's the Captain that needs saving? Without their Captain's care-free attitude to give them hope, how will the crew handle the terrors ahead? How will Zoro deal with his own feelings that seem to run deeper than respect and friendship?
1. Chapter 1

Hey, ZoLuOtaku here! This is my first Fan Fiction, so feel free to send me your opinions on my story :3

I apologize for any OOC-ness

**Warning:**

This story will contain Yaoi. You no like, You no read.

This story is post-time skip. If you don't want spoilers I suggest you don't read.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own One Piece! All rights go to Eiichiro Oda!

I thank my Beta PaPaBishie for all the help! Love you~

**Prologue**

Voices were coming from everywhere. Lights were swirling around Luffy, like he had been caught in some sick kind of web. These lights had stopped him from moving. A groan in the distance let Luffy know he was certainly not alone. His head was buzzing and his body hurt like it had just been in some kind of fight. _What's going on? Where am I?_

_W-What happened?_

**A Few Hours Earlier**

Luffy jolted awake. He sat up so fast that he almost tipped over hammock that would cause him to fall to the floor. Trying to steady his breathing, he glanced around the room making sure that everything was in its rightful place. _What was I dreaming about? It was horrible. A nightmare?_ His head had a slight throbbing in the side, but he decided to ignore it for now.

Slowly, he slid from his hammock so as not to wake his nakama. He climbed the ladder, opened the hatch, and took a deep breath of fresh air. But all too soon a bad feeling arose in his gut. His instincts screamed at him to just crawl back into his little hammock and fall asleep.

Closing the hatch, he tip-toed to the kitchen for a snack, knowing that would help ease his shot nerves. When Franky made the Thousand Sunny, Sanji talked him into putting locks on the fridge and pantry. Earlier, he had managed to swipe the key from him. He always keeps it in his pocket for good measure.

When he was getting ready for bed, he took his black jacket off as always but Nami called from above wanting something. He couldn't quite tell what she wanted, he was more excited about getting a snack tonight than listening. Creeping around the ship like a cat, Luffy headed back to his room. But a muscled hand reached out and grabbed his neck when his back was turned. Looking up cautiously, Luffy froze and opened his mouth to say something but a finger was pressed to his pale lips. It was Zoro. He raised an eyebrow, but smirked when he realized what Luffy was up to. He nodded and the Captain knew he wouldn't tell. Luffy gave him a huge smile and climbed into his hammock, shoving the key into his pocket. He supposed he fell asleep, though. Then he laughed remembering his own sneakiness.

A few hours later the pain in his head came back causing him to head out on the deck for another distraction. Luffy knew he should go get Chopper, but his little nakama was sleeping.

Suddenly, the pain in his head grew. He stumbled over to his special spot. Namely, the head of the giant lion carefully crafted onto the front of Sunny. It always made him feel better when he sat there. A spot just for him and nobody else. But, this time it didn't help.

The throbbing turned into an aching pain and it felt very hot. Hotter than it should have with Sunny anchored in a windy spot in the middle of the night. A chill ran up his spine even though he was practically boiling. It truly freaked him out. _I'm the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates! What am I getting creeped out for? It's just the wind._ But in the back of his mind he knew it wasn't true.

Something felt… off. _I just need to get some sleep is all. _But before he could take another step, the pain in his head overwhelmed him and he fell to his knees clutching his head. The pain was so intense that his eyes started to tear up.

An ethereal blue glow emanated from his body. The light began to seep out of the entrance of the cave he was currently in. The shadows danced along the floor. He concentrated harder, feeling sweat begin to trickle down his temple. As his glow grew stronger, the shadows began to crawl up the walls as if trying to escape from hell. And he knew it was working. He could feel the toll his powers were taking on his body. Making him weaker and more frail the more he used them. His motivation for revenge helping to push through the fear. He bared his teeth in a bone-chilling grin knowing that his plan was coming together. He still needed time to complete the ritual, but that was fine with him. According to lore, he would be feeling the affects by now.

_Not much longer now and I will have your head. Mugiwara Luffy!_

**A/N:**

Thanks for reading, if you got all the way through! I would appreciate any feedback and criticism you can offer.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the long wait, guys! I've had this sitting in my computer forever but just lost all motivation to write this story.

I do plan to finish it though so no worries :3

If the story seems different it's because its wasn't edited by PaPaBishie and the rest of this story most likely won't be either.

Thank you to all of those below who commented on my story. You really helped:

_FindingThatDamnedOnePiece_

FlightWulf

Miranda

JudyBudgie644

Toshiro With Love

Neko11

BlueStarLightCB

wanting doom

Countrylovinfangirl

Thanks to any one I forgot as well.

** Disclaimer:**I do not own One Piece

I apologize for any ooc-ness

**Spoiler Alert:**This story is post time skip

**Doctor's Diagnosis**

Zoro's mind slowly drifted back to consciousness. He looked around the room locating the shadow clad figures of his crew mates one-by-one. Franky's bulking figure, Usopp's comparatively smaller one, the little ball that could only be Chopper, Brook's ridiculously long form, and the large lump of blankets Sanji sleeps burrowed beneath each night. He mentally checked each one off.

Not sure what woke him up at such an ungodly hour when he is normally the heaviest sleeper, he rolled over onto his other side content to just let the gentle rocking of the waves against the ship lull him back to sleep.

Flipping over on his other side gave him a clear view of the hammock Luffy should be sleeping in.

_Luffy must not be back from his raid of the kitchen. Heh, Ero-cook is going to curse up a storm when he finds out in the morning._

_… I wonder if there's any alcohol left hidden._

With that thought in mind, Zoro gracefully slid out of his hammock, grabbing his swords out of habit. He pushed open the hatch and started a course for the kitchen, not bothering to muffle his footsteps.

Zoro would never intentionally wake his nakama, but he doesn't particularly care if he gets caught. If anything, it would just give him an excuse to fight with Sanji when he would undoubtedly attack him for the pillaging of his precious kitchen. This changed, however, when he began to tread ever closer to the cabin where Robin and Nami sleep.

_Tsk, if I wake up that Sea Witch, she'll probably add even more to my never-ending debt._

Zoro slowly crept forward on the balls of his feet, walking past the door. Once he was a safe distance away, he let out a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding. He finished his journey to the kitchen in much the same way he began it and opened the door.

"Hey, Luffy. Have you seen any-?"

Zoro didn't finish his sentence because as soon as he flicked on the light he realized that the room was empty. A nice sized pile of bones lay in the corner. No doubt from the meat Luffy ate and evidence enough that he had indeed been here_. _

_Strange. If Luffy isn't here and he isn't in his hammock, where is he?_

A sense of dread began pooling in Zoro's chest. He started to panic as he passed all of Luffy's favorite spots. Nami's mikan trees, the swing Franky built, the aquarium, and even the Soldier Dock System.

He was about to return to the men's quarters to see if he had somehow missed Luffy returning to his hammock, when he noticed a figure hunched over by the head of Sunny. Instinctively, he grabbed the hilt of Wadou Ichimonji.

As he got closer, he could make out Luffy's treasured straw hat. He relaxed the grip he had on his sword and ventured closer.

"Oi, Luffy! What are you doing?"

Zoro froze when he was blasted with an incredible heat when the wind changed direction, and a soft whimper reached his ears. Everything about this situation rubbed him the wrong way. And the heat felt borderline dangerous. His hand twitched. Still, he resisted the urge to draw all three of his swords and assume a defensive position.

_It's just Luffy_

He repeated to himself as a sort of mantra to calm him nerves.

"Luffy? What's going on?" He made sure to keep his tone even and confident to hide how worried he really was. He crouched down so he was level with Luffy. Luffy was shaking and his face was wet with what was unmistakably tears. His hands were buried in the dark tendrils of his hair that weren't plastered to his face with sweat.

"…ro?" Luffy coughed and tried again.

"Zoro?"

"Yeah, it's me." Zoro reached out to feel Luffy's forehead to determine if he was running a fever high enough that he should wake Chopper. The moment Zoro's fingertips brushed against the super-heated skin, he began to panic. He was paralyzed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't jerk his hand away from the intimidating heat. He could only watch in horror as the thin strands of Luffy's hair brushed his fingers and seemingly bled onto his hand. Lines started to trail up his arm. They were so dark that they even made Zoro's golden skin appear white. It began a slow trail up his forearm making good progress towards his shoulder and leaving criss-crossing patterns behind. Everywhere those lines touched felt numb.

"Zoro?" Luffy obviously missed his friend's distress. The inky stripes continued up his arm and instantly started branching out across his chest as if they had a mind of their own. The closer they got to Zoro's heart, the harder it became for him to breathe. The edges of his vision were covered in darkness, but he could still see Luffy's lips moving. He just couldn't hear any of the words being spoken. By now he was hyperventilating in an effort to get some oxygen into his lungs. Zoro could sense the pure malice within those bands of pain and came to a startling realization.

He was dying.

Whatever those lines were, they were sucking the life right out of him.

"Zoro!" Luffy smacked Zoro's hand away in an effort to see his first mate better. All at once, Zoro's senses came back to him in a rush that left his ears ringing. He took a large gulp of air and focused his good eye on the 19-year old when he realized he was still talking to him.

"What?"

"I asked if your okay, Zoro. You're shaking." Zoro looked at his now trembling hands and noticed that those vicious lines were already gone. The only proof that they had even been there, is they effect they clearly had on his body. Even now, Zoro was still struggling to gather air into his lungs.

"I-I'm fine. What about you, Luffy? What were you doing over here?"

"Hmmm, well my head did hurt. Once you got here it stopped, though. Shishishi, Zoro's got the magic touch!" Zoro just scowled at the infamous captain and stood up. Or tried too. As soon as he was in an upright position he fell over, barely managing to catch himself on the railing. Luffy stopped smiling when he witnessed his nakama's sudden loss of balance.

"Zoro? Hold on, I'm going to go get Chopper!"

Zoro just lowered himself back onto Sunny's deck in response. Luffy took off running for the men's quarters, his feet thudding against the wood. He opened the hatch, not even bothering to be quiet.

"Chopper! Wake up, there's something wrong with Zoro!" Muffled curses followed his outburst as well as a few pillows thrown in his general direction. The attackers' sleep muddled minds clearly not registering what their captain had actually said. Luffy shook the reindeer in hopes of rousing him. All he did was let out a few mumbles about cotton-candy, and roll over. Luffy not in the mood to mess around. Just grabbed Chopper and carried him up the hatch and back to Zoro.

"What-what's going on?" By the time they reached their destination, the doctor was rubbing the tiredness from his eyes. Looking over he noticed Zoro was collapsed on the ground, sweating and panting with his back resting against the railing. Chopper scurried over to the swordsman and started firing questions that Zoro couldn't keep up with.

"Chopper, Chopper slow down. I can't understand what you're saying. I'm not sick."

"Delayed cognitive comprehension, temperature, tremors…" Chopper mumbled to himself about symptoms and diseases while pressing his hoof to Zoro's forehead. For a split second Zoro was concerned that whatever just happened to him would also happen to Chopper, but was relieved to see that it was not the case.

_What happened had to have been something I did, then. I went numb when I touched Luffy, but Luffy couldn't have done that. This is Luffy. He's my friend and captain. He'd never hurt one of us. _

He shot a confused glance at Luffy, looking at his expression that had worry written all over it.

_It's the same one he always wears when one of us gets hurt. I don't think Luffy noticed what happened when I touched him. _

"Let's go to the infirmary. It'll be easier for me to determine what's wrong with you there. Do you think you can stand?" It took Zoro a moment to realize Chopper was talking to him. He was so focused on figuring out what transpired between him and Luffy. He stood up and swayed. Luffy went to steady him, but Chopper caught him in his Heavy Point.

"I'll take Zoro to the infirmary, you should go wake up the others. Once I'm done with Zoro, I want to make sure no one else caught what he did."

Chopper picked Zoro up ignoring his protests that he was fine and could walk one his own, and carried him to the infirmary. Once inside he set Zoro down on the bed, noting how he winced when yells and loud crashes could be heard all the way from below deck as the other Straw Hats were woken up.

Luffy explained the situation to the other Straw Hats and gave them Chopper's orders. After he was done speaking the room was eerily quiet. After all no one from the Monster Trio ever got sick. Usopp was elected to go wake the girls up while Sanji made some coffee. Bringing all the Straw Hat Pirates to gather in the kitchen sans Zoro and Chopper.

"Luffy, what happened?"

Nami asked from her position on the other side of the table. She was the first person to speak since receiving the news. He was saved from attempting to answer when Chopper came in. Everyone that wasn't already, stood from their seats.

"I ran some tests, and by all means Zoro should be perfectly healthy. I did manage to get him to tell me what happened though."

Chopper looked around the room at the faces of all his nakama and felt guilty that he didn't bring better news. He brought his eyes to settle on Luffy. He let his eyes travel down to the floor unable to meet the captain's eyes any longer.

"I need you all to step away from Luffy." All expressions in the room held equal parts shock and worry. One held horror as the meaning of Chopper's words sunk in.

"I did that to Zoro?!" Luffy asked incredulously. He could feel another headache begin to pound behind his eyes. Everyone in the room stared between Luffy and Chopper in confusion.

"Luffy-bro, calm down. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation." Franky began to speak but stopped when he noticed Luffy wasn't even listening. Luffy was too busy rubbing his temples to try and cure the ache that was steadily getting worse. He broke out in a sweat and he started shaking like a leaf. Finally, his legs gave out and fell to the floor.


End file.
